This is not about education, although in a way it is. It is about an act of conscience. It appears on Bill Moyers’ daily blog.
“An honor he dreams not of –>
“French economist Thomas Piketty, whose best-selling tome, Capitalism in the 21st Century, made vivid the accelerating income gap between the very rich and everyone else, has turned down France’s highest official award, the Legion d’Honneur. He told AFP, “I refuse this nomination because I do not think it is the government’s role to decide who is honorable.”
Here is the original story that Moyers links to.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“I refuse this nomination because I do not think it is the government’s role to decide who is honorable.”
Wow, standing ovation! (Well, a quick one before my corporate overlords catch me and beat me.)
Guess I should at least buy the dude’s book, even though I know I’ll never plow my way through it.
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French economist Thomas Piketty is in excellent company, considering the names of others who have refused the honor:
composer Hector Berlioz, radiology pioneers Pierre and Marie Curie, philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre, and singer Georges Brassens
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And Piketty warned that if Americans don’t change their situation of wealth inequality and redistribution of wealth, the status quo will inevitably lead to a revolution. I don’t know if that will be in my lifetime or not.
I almost view the protests over Ferguson as a tinder box to ignite civil unrest over inequality and as a means of pushing back a willingly disconnected plutocracy.
But for me or future generations, I take Piketty’s warning very seriously.
In a way, Louis the 16th and Marie Antoinette were so isolated from what was going on. That does not excuse them, but it was SO easy to be cut off – even with their emissaries – and then it was too late for them, their family and entourage.
But in 2015 America with technology, there is no excuse for people like Meryl Tisch and Bill Gates to not hear the will of the majority. The more they ignore, the more they will be digging their or their progeny’s and future descendents’ graves.
I am very concerned. The rest of the modern civilized democratic world laughs at the United States.
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Not to niggle, but Bill Moyers didn’t describe this. This little blurb was written by “Bill Moyers & Company,” or, more specifically, some journalist who writes content but isn’t allowed to have a byline.
So, in keeping with the spirit of calling out the wealth gaps in every industry, here’s a toast to all the journalists who literally toil in anonymity for the credit of their outsize-ego celeb-reporter bosses in exchange for huge undergraduate debt, shockingly low pay, and no job security.
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What a wonderful statement on Moyers part.
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Maybe not quite in the same league as Socrates BUT a man with integrity. There are some still around, thank God.
And yes, some GREAT journalists still around, again, thank God.
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Well la-ti-dah.
Good grief. He needs to get over himself.
Ok, my understanding is that his book pretty much leads you to the conclusion that the gap is inevitable.
Also, democracy is government, right? I don’t understand the lines here. When is government not people? Is a Medal of Honor for our military something the government bestows?
I think his “statement” is without meaning or incident. I care about it as much as I would if he had accepted it.
I also don’t understand the replies here. If a teacher receives an honor from the state should she turn it down? But the honor of “National Board,” which comes from a private company, is an honor??
I don’t get what this post has to do with the subject of education at all.
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The award was from the French government – it has nothing to do with the U.S. military. Piketty turned it down because the French government (nominally socialist, as is Piketty himself) has gone the opposite direction of anything contained in Piketty’s book, so it’s a bit hypocritical for them to want to honor him.
His book doesn’t say that the gap is inevitable, only that it’s inevitable under unrestrained capitalism.
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As Laura’s comment suggests, there’s a history of people declining this award, and there’s probably an amount of a certain kind of political cred to be gained by doing so. Maybe it’s like turning down an Academy Award.
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To Joanna Best:
What you express as “When is government not people?”, to me, when government deliberately accepts the control from business tycoons to bully 99% middle class and working class, this typical government does not truly represent the majority of people.
Would you accept award from Liberal government whose policy is against liberalism that you believe in, vote for, and write about? That is what I agree with any famous person who refuses to accept award which does not reflect his or her belief. Back2basic
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This belongs on this site because it is a valuable lesson in hypocracy. This is kind of like the $28 ransom check I received from Governor Cuomo after people in my district agreed to vote down a budget increase of more than 2%. How is that democracy? If you only approve a budget with less than a 2% increase (read lay off more people as inflation of health car is more than 2%) I will send you a “refund”? That is what our founding fathers would have imagined while laying out a democracy? Bribing people with their own money? This wasn’t even questioned on the state and local news. However, if I offered to pay people 28$ for voting for a budget that doesn’t cut funding to lower levels, I would be likely be arrested for illegally trying to influence a vote. Go figure?
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Are you sure it was 28 dollars? Not 30 pieces of silver?
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Another NY Teacher,
How about this idea (even though I agree with what you are saying):
You would not have to vote for your school budget every year (or any year) or worry as much about adequate funding if we all simply – across the nation – received way more bang from the biggest income tax we pay, which is the federal income tax.
We should have our federal tax dollars paying far more for public schooling.
Instead we are forced to give our tax money to war campaigns that cost billions per year, to overseas tax havens for corporations, and to bailouts for failed banks that crash the economy. We pay more federal tax dollars than the very wealthy because our tax laws are grotesquely slanted in favor of the rich and corporations not paying their fair share.
Therefore, funding public schools is left largely to state aid and mostly to the local home owner through property taxes. Until people are REALLY aware of how much they do not get from their federal income tax dollar, this situation will only worsen and hurt the majority of people living and working in this country.
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And just compare how other modern democratic nations’ federal governments pay for their public schooling compared to ours.
The average is 54% for these countries while ours stands at 13%.
While we build drones to assassinate a 15 year old boy in the Middle East who had nothing to do with his father’s terrorist activities, I don’t have enough guided reading books for my students because we have a challenged budget and my state owes my school district about 40 million dollars and has not paid a dime of it for the last 7 years.
It sounds absurd and horrific, but whatever tone you chose to paint upon this juxtaposition, it’s all 100% true.
We are slipping down a slippery slope to land in the Valley of Edwardian England, where the middle class existed in the servile class’s dreams.
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While we work to scale down the military-industrial complex, claw back money from overseas tax shelters, and revise the numerous insanities in the tax code, like allowing filers to deduct mortgage interest and local property taxes not just from their primary residence but also a vacation home, we shouldn’t overlook solutions that are locally based and probably easier to achieve. For instance, I would argue that a district (yours) that is spending $26,000 per child and can’t afford materials should probably take a closer look at where that money is going before marching on Albany or Washington.
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